Ugh… Where… am I?
I awaken and look around. A small, boxy room, a hay-covered bench for a bed, bars… Bars?
A prison? Why am I here?
Hello? I try to call out, but there’s no sound.
A gravelly voice pushes its way to the forefront of my mind. “A weapon like that thing doesn’t need a voice.”
A weapon? What exactly am I? I look down. Hooves?
A single word echoes in my brain as knowledge seems to flood into my mind. “Pony.” History, biology, language, everything floods into my head, almost so fast it hurts.
Well, that explains something, at least. I’m a pony. A cool green coat, a misty gray-green mane with a black streak covering my right eye. I wonder what color my eyes are. I distinctly remember that there are three basic kinds of ponies. I look to my side, wondering if I have wings. Nothing. I guess I probably would have known if I was a pegasus, since wings would be a movable part of my skeleton. Shoulda thought of that.
I bring a hoof to my head, searching for a- Ah! A horn! Great, so I’m a unicorn. That means magic. Awesome.
Okay, I’ve got the “what” out of the way. Now I need to figure out “who” I am.
Aargh, that gravelly voice again… “You call it Plaz? What a stupid name. Eh, I guess it’s descriptive enough. A disappointing name for a disappointing project failure.” Whoever that voice belongs to is a condescending asshole. But at least I have a name now. Plaz.
Okay, I know what, who, and at least vaguely where I am.
I head over to the bars of my cell and look out. Nopony in sight. Strange. The dank, dark hallway extends in either direction, and as far as I can tell, both walls are lined with cells. Empty, all of them except my own. One end of the hallway has a barred window way up high, light streaming in. Based on the amount of light, it’s about midday, give or take an hour or two. In any case, I’m not getting out that way.
I look to the other end of the hall. There’s a door, which could be my way out. But first, I need to see if there’s anypony else around. I tap a hoof on the bars, letting a long echo carry through the hall. Nothing. Again, I tap the bars, harder this time. Still the echo doesn’t bring anypony in. One last time, I rattle the bar continuously. And still nopony comes.
Well, screw it. If nopony’s coming, I may as well get myself out of here. I search the cell for something, anything that may be of use for getting me out. the room is completely bare. Nothing. Same goes for outside the cell. The hallway and other visible cells are just as bare as the cell I’m in.
Gahh! that condescending voice is worming its way back into the forefront of my mind! “So it uses plasma-based magic? What a waste of time.” Plasma? Well, that explains my name. So… I can fire superheated gas from my horn? Interesting.
I walk to the door of the cell and lower my horn to it, allowing a powerful green color to fill my mind. A thin beam of plasma streams from my horn and cuts the lock from the door, which falls to the ground with a loud clunk. The door creaks forward. Well, that was simple enough.
I step out of the cell and walk down the hall, stopping at the door. I look through the circular window into the room beyond. Still nopony around? How strange. The room looks to be a security station. Perhaps this prison hall is just part of a larger facility that serves some other purpose. I push the door open and step through.
This room as well is also rather barren. Only a couple of terminals and some open (and empty) lockers. Some security station. A wave of curiosity strikes me. I head over to the closest terminal and attempt to gain access, hoping to glean some clues about this place. I sit down and bigin to type, attempting to hack the device.
WHIF
Huh? My hoof just… whiffed right through the keyboard. The hell? I try touching the monitor of the terminal. WHIF. No dice. I keep trying with the other terminals, attempting to find what the problem is. Then it dawns on me. Clouds! … Seriously? I hate pegasi now. I really do. Stupid cloud computing.
I test each terminal for cloud composition before finally settling at a nice solid one. I make short work of the security, allowing me easy access to all the deep dark secrets of this facility. Mwahaha. If I could actually laugh, I know I’d have the very best evil laugh of all time.
Okay, so I don’t really uncover this facility’s deepest darkest secrets. I do, however, manage to get some decent floor plans. Unfortunately, I don’t get any other information on what this place is. Oh, well.
So, from what I can tell, the eastern door of this room heads to something called C-Block, which connects to the rest of the facility. The northern door he heads to the laboratory, which connects to the entrance. The western door goes back to the cell block. Okay, so it’s around one in the afternoon. Obviously, if I want to get out, my best bet would be through the lab.
An alarm wails from an overhead PA system, knocking me off my seat in surprise. “Attention, all guards report to C-Block! The dogs are rioting again. And for the love of Luna, don’t use lethal force!”
Two guards burst out of the lab, running for the hall leading to C-Block. I must have luck on my side, because falling off the seat put me exactly out of sight of these two. The only downside is that I don’t get a good look at them. Oh well.
I wait under the terminal for another half a minute, but no other guards come through. I come out of my impromptu hiding place and trot over to the still-swinging lab door and push it open, stepping inside.
I guess the scientists are all in other blocks. Despite there being all kinds of scientific instruments and terminals strewn about, the lab is just as bare of ponies as the previous rooms.
After taking in the overall view of the room, my eyes are drawn to a massive glass cylinder, filled with a greenish liquid, housing a furry black… thing.
My head starts to throb. An image blasts its way into my vision. I can see the lav I’m currently in, with scientists surrounding me. Everything looks green, and I suddenly realize that I’m seeing from a point of view inside the tank. I was in there. I was where this furball is now.
The vision fades and I realize I’m on the floor, breathing heavily. Did I collapse?
I push myself up onto my hooves, levelling my face with the creature in the tank. And it’s now looking back at me. My body acts on its own, jumping back, standing defensively, my horn alight with a coating of plasma. Two large gashes of crimson with jet black pupils simply stare at me.
I calm myself, pulling back my magic. I go over to the tank and place a hoof on it, looking at the creature as it looks back at me. It starts to uncurl itself, and I get the distinct impression, by way once again of the echoing voices, that this is a “dog,” one of those things the guards were shouting about over the PA system.
The dog stretches out its arm and points at a terminal. I look to the terminal, then back to the dog. It nods, and I nod back. I head over to the terminal, which has been left mercifully unlocked. I first check the scientific notes, but they seem to be under a password all their own, and I don’t feel like taking time to hack it. I go back to the menu and notice the other option: OPEN TANK. Well, this seems far too easy, but I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Is that really an expression we use? The hell kind of society are we? I select and confirm the command.
The fluid in the tank empties, and the glass retracts into the floor, allowing the dog to step out onto the floor. It takes a moment, but I finally grasp the full height of this creature. It’s massive, at least three average pony heights from head to toe-claw. Was it perhaps a poor choice to let something this big and obviously dangerous that could potentially slaughter me out of its cage?
Nah!
The dog stretches itself out, standing on its hind legs, extending its massive crimson-clawed forearms out. It’s rather impressive, the armspan must be at least two and a half, maybe three meters.
“I was not expecting you to release me, pony.” Huh? Oh, it’s talking. Oh, of course the dog can talk. “Ponies do tests, ponies make observations, ponies scurry about the facility, but never do ponies let me out as I continually ask. Why did you release me, pony?”
Oh, great. It’s asking me a question. I open my mouth, but obviously no sound comes, so I opt to shrug.
The creature does something with its face that I can only imagine to be analogous to the raising an eyebrow. “Pony does something without reason to do so? A new experience. Why do you not speak, pony?”
I roll my eyes. I’ve been asking myself that since I woke up. To be fair, that was only minutes ago. I raise a hoof to my throat and breathe out noiselessly.
“I see. You cannot speak. Did they take your voice as they took my species’ dignity?” Once again, I answer with a shrug. “You do not know yourself, then?” I nod. “There must be some way for you to speak without words.”
I look around for something that could fit the bill of “speaking without words.” Over on one of the desks I spy a clipboard with a full stack of what look like medical forms of some kind, as well as a jar full of pencils. I levitate both of them toward myself, plucking out one of the pencils and flipping the medical forms over. Blank. Perfect.
this should work, I scribble.
“That seems acceptable. Now, pony, what is your name?”
plaz. at least, i think so.
“Plaz… I seem to recall hearing your name occasionally among the science ponies. Inconsequential. I was given the name Redclaw, I’m sure you can see why,” he says, holding up a paw with his crimson claws extended.
are there others like you here? I scribble.
He seems to ponder for a moment. “No. Other dogs, to be sure, as this place was once our home, but none like me. The science ponies came, did experiments, made me smarter than my brethren. Stronger. Faster. Tougher. They did many things to me, tests and tortures, trials and tribulations. I am more because of them.” Redclaw pauses for a moment. “But now I am free. I can leave this place behind.”
can i come with?
This time, it’s Redclaw who shrugs. “I see no reason you could not accompany me out into the wild. How long we stay together is up to you and your endurance.”
fine by me.
“Well then, we should not delay. The guards should be finishing their attack against my lesser brethren soon. We must leave now.”
hold on, let me grab some clothes. Redclaw’s expression returns to that of the pseudo-raised-eyebrow as I go to the wall and pull a labcoat off one of the hooks. Can’t go walking around outside naked, now can I? I also snag a burlap messenger bag from one of the tables and dump the papers and pencils into it, and proceed to slide it around my neck and leg. okay, ready to go, I scribble out.
“Right then. There are a few guards who stand outside. I have seen them from my tank. They patrol that room over there,” he says, pointing to the door opposite the security station. That must be the entrance lobby. Makes sense they’d have a consistent guard there. “They do not leave, even to harass my brethren.”
likely armed?
“Yes, but that should be of no consequence,” Redclaw growls quietly. “Now, come.” I follow him to the lobby door, and peer out the glass. Yep, they’ve got two pegasus guards posted here, wearing some kind of weird armor. Strangely, I seem to have no recollection of this.
2, I scribble to Redclaw. He nods, his body tensing. Before I know it, he leaps forward, crashing through the swinging door and directly into one of the pacing guards. I can’t see what happened to the guard, but I do see the second one shout and aim a rifle in Redclaw’s direction. Oh no you don’t!
FFZZZZZ!
Huh. That’s odd. My body seems to have acted on its own. Oh, look, there are two puddles! Chunky Salsa on Redclaw’s side and Salsa Verde on mine. How adorable.
“Well, it looks like you may be suited to the wilds after all, Plaz,” Redclaw says, observing the remains of my target. I grin at him, and he grins back. Huh. It’s an odd sight, all that pristine white against a jet black surface. Eh, shouldn’t dwell on it.
I spot a locker behind the front desk and decide now’s a good time to make off with whatever I can loot from this place. I open it up. Oh, nice, a magical energy laser pistol and a couple energy cells. Not a bad haul. Of course, the two ex-guards no longer have anything viable to take, one being ripped to shreds, the other melted into goop, and both having taken their equipment with them. Damn.
“I believe it’s time we left,” Redclaw said, pointing to the door. I nod and trot over to it, placing a hoof on the handle. I twist it and push the door open, and a hot breeze washes over my face.
I step out into a canyon, Redclaw beside me. He turns to face me and nods, and I nod back, and we both march forth, into the wild.
Author's Note
Well, then! Now you have the origin of me!
Yup, my ponysona started out as an FoE character, and his first friend was a hellhound. Some life, eh?
Sorry if it's not very comedic quite yet. I hope to get there! Patience, please!
-Plaz
